charitable assertion to say, they have then no thoughts of God at all, at least, if they have, they are very loose and profane.

We see, then, that God is to be worshipped, and that not privately only, but in a public and social manner; and, according to St. Paul, it must be done decently, and in order. Some time, then, of course, must be consécrated and set apart for this purpose; and this, by general practice of Christians, is one day in seven. The Jews, by divine appointment, observed the seventh day, but that obligation terminated with the Hebrew nation; for Christ, after compleating the work of our redemption, by rising on the first day of the week, and afterwards by his miraculous mission of the Holy Ghost, on the first day of the week, which we this day commemorate; Christ, I say, by this means, has translated the religious observation of the seventh day to the first day of the week and the moral obligations of the fourth commandment, with regard to the Jewish sabbath, are équally binding on that of the Christian.

On this day we are not to follow our occupations, but are to rest from our labours, not only ourselves, but our servants and our cattle; by which we shall observe the two incumbent obligations of piety and mercy. And what day can be so proper for Christians to assemble together and worship God as that on which their Redeemer rose from the dead? Since, on this glorious event, all their hopes, all their prospects, and the truth of their religion, depend.

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Now, from what has been observed, thi must be the natural conclusion, that to observe a stated form and time of worship, and to per form it with decency, is highly reasonable, because it keeps in our minds a constant sense of our dependance upon God, and the obligations we owe him. It is this which influences the conduct of a good man, and makes him set God always before him; whereas the wicked is so proud that he careth not for God, neither is God in all his thoughts: he neglects the means of grace, and by so doing, grows every day more loose in his notions of piety and virtue.

But a man that attends the public worship of God may, by the lectures which are there delivered, be put upon his guard against the dangerous snares of vice, which are laid open to the view of the unguarded and inconsiderate; virtue is exalted, vice exposed, and the duties of morality are enforced by the glorious sanctions of eternal happiness to the good, and everlasting misery to the wicked.

I know it is allowed on all hands, that public sermons are very useful and fit instructions for the vulgar and ignorant, but we are told that they are useless with respect to men of reason and reflection. That is, in plain English, they are of no service at all; for who is the man, if he may judge for himself, that will place himself in the class of the ignorant and thoughtless? I fear, if this were to be admitted as a sufficient plea of absence, we should have but a thin congregation; for people would stay at home to avoid being thought ignorant. But this plea of

vanity must not be admitted, because there is no man so deep read to whose memory some important truths may not be discovered; or, at least, represented in a light in which they were never considered; and, perhaps, in a light fairly adapted to their own tempers, and which, consequently, may lead them to good and worthy

actions.

No man is so compleatly master of every subject, as that nothing new can be suggested to him, and as prejudice and prepossession are misfortunes that attend the most finished education, something in a studied discourse may be offered, if not immediately to enlarge his understanding, at least to put him upon a cool examination, by which his wrong bias may be removed.

However, after all, public lectures must be looked upon by far the less noble and sublime part of divine service, if it can be called any part of it all; though, by some sectaries, the sermon is thought to be the principal part of their public worship; at least, one would imagine so, since their whole service consists almost entirely of preaching.

But a judicious person will easily perceive that the whole design of public lectures is to persuade men, by proper arguments, to a constant attendance upon the public worship, and to every other Christian duty; therefore, to attend to a sermon, and, in a manner, neglect the prayers, is to confound the means with the end, which is a manifest absurdity.

Men should be careful, when they come into

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the house of God, that it be with a design to worship him, and not only out of curiosity to hear a sermon, as I fear too many do. How many idle people are there, who seldom, or never, put their foot within side a church door, unless it be through a case of necessity? Is not all that corruption of morals which has overspread this kingdom, owing to the neglect of this important duty of social worship?

Many there are who, by this neglect, have blotted out of their minds all distinction between good and evil, and have commenced cool and deliberate libertines. They have so far debased their notions of religion as to look upon it as a duty that may be observed by the bye, when neither their pleasures nor their profits interfere. They have clouded their reason so far as to take a pleasure in deceiving themselves in those points that are of the highest consequence to them, as if the safest way to avoid a precipice was to run blind-fold by it. In their worldly concerns they are diffident and timerous; in their religious conduct they are rash and credulous; in worldly affairs they deliberately weigh every circumstance; in religion they are so far from thinking or reflecting, that they venture their immortal treasures upon occasional reflections.

These are the characters of such as regard not God, but make him only a secondary or subservient Deity, and sacrilegiously bestow upon sense and appetite that worship to which he alone has a claim.

To men of this stamp, all arguments drawn

from religion will prove useless and unavailing, and it will be next to an impossibility to make them entertain the most distant thought of a reformation, because they do not perceive their disorder, but rather approve of their conduct; and, unless our irregularities are clearly seen, and deeply lamented, we must for ever remain incurable.

Astonishing that man, who boasts of his reason, should act so trifling and inconsiderate a part; should be so careless of his eternal concerns, not to say, bent upon his own destruction.

However, let us not all be thus inconsiderate, but rather let us be persuaded to act as becomes reasonable creatures, by a frequent and chearful discharge of this reasonable and important duty of social worship; and then we shall be better fitted to join (with transporting and ineffable delight) among the heavenly host, in singing eternal hallelujahs, under the smiles of our God and Redeemer. To whom be ascribed, &c.